Come and discover the world of wild edible plants by immersing yourself in the Kent countryside. With internationally renowned forager Miles Irving as your guide, you will soon be identifying edible plants out in the wild to bring back to your dinner table.

By discovering the wild plants in their natural settings you will explore a range of plant families and their individual characteristics. Using botanical knowledge and practical skills you will begin to understand how and why different wild plants thrive in their habitats. Using hand-held lenses, you will gain significant insight into the micro-world of wild plants.

With our wild bounty, you will explore further the culinary potential of the hyper-seasonal plants we have collected in a light lunch prepared in our research kitchen. With unique access to our entire wild stock of the season's best foraged foods, this will not only be a nutritious and tasty meal; but also an insight into the possibilities of wild food.

Course outline:

- An exploration of leaf types to identify different wild plants

- Use of loops (small hand lenses) to delve deeper into plant botany

- Identifying wild edibles with the help of field guides

- In-depth look at the characters of different plant families

- A seasonal wild lunch which will highlight culinary uses for various wild plants

Foraging expert Miles Irving has been writing, speaking and teaching on the topic of wild food for over fifteen years. His book The Forager Handbook was published by Ebury Press in 2009 and is considered to be one of the 'must-haves' for budding and experienced foragers alike.

He is the founder and director of Forager Ltd, and the host of the WorldWild Podcast connecting foragers, foodies, and philosophers from around the world. His travels in the world of wild food and in search of further knowledge have taken him to the depths of the Brazilian Amazon and the outback with indigenous communities in Australia.

Miles has led foraging workshops at Kew Gardens, the MAD symposium (organised by NOMA in Denmark) and for many of the top restaurants across the country (Dinner by Heston, Hix group, Restaurant Flat Three to name a few). He has been featured in the BBC 4 Food Programme, The Telegraph, Guardian Food Monthly, The Financial Times, at the Biohacker Summit, and is regularly sought out for his wisdom on a wide range of current ecological issues pertaining to our place as humans in the wild and the emerging future of food production and supply.